Big Plane, Small Axe

DVD200451 Minutes

The trials of Mary Kelly, peace protester.

The mis-trials of Mary Kelly. In January 2003 the American build-up for the attack on Iraq was intensifying daily. Shannon Airport had become a refuelling stopover for the war. Mary Kelly, newly returned from hair-raising experiences as a volunteer nurse in Palestine, threw herself into the anti-war movement, but soon came to believe it was not enough. ’I felt I had to do something else, and shatter through their lies. I just did not want those planes going there, so I attacked one of them. It was like chopping extremely hard wood.’ She was charged with criminal damage to a US Navy aircraft without lawful excuse, and faced a possible ten years in jail. The film follows her ordeal through three successive trials, in Kulrush and Ennis, and finally her sentencing at Limerick.

This programme can be rented on our Video on Demand system for £1.88. For this you can view as often as you like within a 48 hour period of your own choosing.